How can one find out if a loved one died with life insurance years after the fact?

Question

If she did have a policy, how can I find out who the beneficiaries were? i ask because I suspect My mom's husband forged a check made payable to me.

Answer 1

Well, if you're not executor of the estate or the policy owner, frankly, you don't have any legal access to that information.  

If you ARE the executor, you can go through mom's cancelled checks to see what insurance company she had been paying - and then call them and ask.  

MOST people die without life insurance in place.  Even if it WAS in place, it would be irregular for someone not the husband, to be made beneficiary.  If you were a minor child, your legal guardian (your father?) would be the one to get it, or it would have been set up to pay upon you reaching 21 or 25 or some such.

If you were not living with mom, then the insurance company most likely would have send the check directly to you, the beneficiary.  They do NOT send it to someone else, to GIVE to the beneficiary.  And, a bank is going to want positive id, before letting one person turn in a check to their account, that is made out to another person.  Especially if it's five figures or more.  

Bottom line - most likely, he didn't forge a check.  Most likely, there was no active coverage in place.   But you can't "check" years after the fact, without going to court and getting a judge to say you can, because it's a private transaction.

Answer 2

I can tell you that I was having a problem similiar to this one but knew there was a policy but however it was trying to claim it.  

Depending what state that you live in if there is a policy there is two ways to find this out.

1. You can go to the states website for unclaimed funds.  Such as www.(your states full name + unclaimed no space).com  

2. Two sometimes there are also legal websites that you can google that are attorney postings online for unclaimed insurance policies.

another thing is if you know enough information about this check that was possibly forged look into going to the bank or source that issued and cashed it and talk to someone about this issue and they will usually investigate it and ask for a signature verification if it is a large sum the police may very well get involved and use a handwriting expert and if he did cash it then my understanding from my sister who works in a bank all recorded cameras are archived for at the minimum of 10 years.  They would be able to go back to that date and if it is proven that he did they will press charges possible federal charges depending on the amount.  Hope this was helpful.  I would tell you to go to the police however they will tell you without enough evidence first they cannot and will not do anything.  So try to get the evidence first.  It may very well come down to something big.  Good Luck